Stunning – simple and honest music, the kind of recording that captures your attention softly and with humility, and the kind of songwriting that feels not designed to draw focus to the performer, but towards a feeling or moment, a series of thoughts; an ambience and mood.
Alt Folk
You have to hear it to know how it feels – words can’t really convey. This song has the alt-folk beauty and pop warmth of some of history’s classic, unpredictable hits. Something like Ben Howard’s Keep Your Head Up, an alt-folk legend lifting the mood; this time somehow both catchy and not. Calling For Change is soulful, to repeat that truth again. It’s yearning, mellow then emotionally desperate in its outcry, and the set-up furthers this, with modest guitar solo moments and a huge crescendo at the end.
Ambient lo-fi grooves that envelop their listener, alongside deeply emotional vocals – drawn out, expressive phrases and notes, blending something like soul and jazz across a colourful, contemplative tapestry. Matthias Boretius fuses passion and quiet musical presence, for the sweeping sentiments and sounds of Open Door.
UK acoustic vibes blending long riffs and summertime world-music rhythms with conceptual depth. Akiva Zneimer takes us back to the lightness of the warmer seasons, with a song fusing rap and melody to that alt-folk bounce of a style once made underground famous by the likes of Will and the People.
Building from a purely acoustic and nearly whispered introduction, Monsters employs Frida Mann’s unmistakable vocals, and slowly but surely evolves through a story of anger, resentment, confinement. The voice is captivating, and later near-euphoric in its outcry, and as such, this conceptual journey is incredibly passionate, in both vocal and instrumental delivery.
From a heavy alternative ambiance to pure instrumental intensity, by way of folk-like imagery and scenes – the fiercely unique creative act Second Choice deliver a cinematic and soulful journey, for By The Blackened Fern.
Indie music raising the bar as ever for the true and expressive creative freedom that drives things forward. Zuko Sian captures something cool and artistic, a sound rhythmically dancing between alt-folk festival vibes, hip hop, RnB and alternative pop or trip hop.
Organic loops of instrumentation and voice, poetic and personal ideas resounding and lingering – an ambient but largely acoustic presentation, of songs that feel both revealing and mysterious in their vague bursts of both joy and sadness. German songwriter and artist Rico Friebe releases a brand new double album, in the form of the mighty The Desire Path / The Open Glade.
“I want to create a space in music where time moves differently. I want to give comfort even in uncomfortable themes or emotions, so that the music is a place where other people who relate to these feelings and ideas can go and feel that comfort too.”
Creative originality intrigues and connects, captivates in a refreshing way – a project of stories both mysterious and poetic. Liz Davinci captures an air of abstract contemplation, with the brand new album Materia Prima.
Parallel Acceptance is a tearjerker of a listen, the perfect soundtrack to lose yourself within, to shake out those aches of uncertainty, lostness, regret, and to feel understood and strangely comforted, by the universal weight of disconnection.
Blending alt-folk anthemic charm with heavier rock rhythms and quality hooks, L.A.R.P storms into view with the mighty Love Ain’t Gonna Come in The Night, a touch of Ben Caplan to the style, then proceeds through five original tracks that prove equally evocative and performative, but quite boldly unconfined by genre.